Luke 8:18
"Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have," Luke 8:18.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9. "Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life," Proverbs 4:23. "Keep" is a verb meaning to guard, to keep, to observe, to perceive, to hide; maintained in a right state. This is continually and repeatedly, every day. A fool follows their heart. A fool allows their heart to dictate their life. A deceitful and desperately wicked heart will not want to be held accountable, so that person will not take heed how they hear, but will instead only hear what they want to hear. The result is that they will live life their way, not God's way. They will examine themselves by looking at others instead of examining themselves by Scripture. It is not good to have selective hearing when studying Scripture.
"Take heed" means metaphorically to perceive with the mind, be aware of, observe. Investigate how you hear. "Ye hear" in this verse means to understand, perceive the sense of what is said. Investigate how you came to an understanding of what you have been made aware of. We can go back to the parable and the explanation of the seed and soils. How many people hear this preached or read it and they understand it in light of their own life instead of by the light of Scripture? Their understanding and what they perceive is not biblical, so they get the wrong interpretation. Getting the wrong interpretation can have eternal consequences. Following someone else's teaching can lead you in the right direction, or the wrong direction. Make sure that what you believe about the bible comes from the bible. When what we believe about God comes from the bible, we have a biblical understanding of God. How wonderful is it when you begin to understand that everyone deserves to spend eternity in hell, yet God by His amazing grace and abundant mercy saved you. Understanding these truths causes you to fall more in love with Jesus Christ. You desire Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, and you become more grounded in the faith. You are correctly hearing Scripture, and Scripture is leading your heart, and the result is that you are longing for the Saviour. With every verse of Scripture you receive you want more. Your life becomes consumed with the things of God, and the things of this world do not attract you like they used to. You begin to understand John in Revelation 22:20, "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." In the book of Revelation John sees Jesus Christ as he had never seen Him before, and at the end of the book John is crying out for Jesus to come back. Oh that God would grant us the grace to see Him in the Scriptures, and that we would cry out like John, even so, come, Lord Jesus.
"Take heed therefore how ye hear, for whosoever hath, to him shall be given,". If God has given you understanding of the Scriptures, He will continue giving you understanding as you study. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," II Timothy 2:15. A "workman", "ergates" is a toiler; (figurative) a teacher:- labourer, worker (-men). If we want to know what the bible teaches, then we must labour in rightly dividing the word of truth. Whatever you have, to you will God give more. We will reap what we sow. We often look at the reaping, and we forget about the work that goes into the sowing. We must stress again, that as we grow in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, we also grow in our love for Him, and our love for the brethren also abounds. "As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," John 8:30-32.
Remember, in our context in Luke 8, all whom the Lord saves produces fruit. Only the soil in verse 15 produced good lasting fruit. The other soils had been given the same seed, but no lasting fruit (verses 12-14). With this in mind, look at the last part of Luke 8:18, "and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." "Seemeth" in this verse means seem to oneself, i.e. to be of opinion, to think, suppose, believe. These are those who have been under the preached word, gained intellectual knowledge, but that is it. They have no love for the Christ of Scripture. In their own opinion, they believe that they are a Christian, but the Scripture says no, but because they are blinded, they will make their own interpretation of the Scriptures to justify their lifestyle. These are not taking heed how they hear the Scripture, and as a result, "from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." John Gill says this in his commentary, "Or "that which he thinks he has", as the Syriac version renders it; that which seemed to others to have, or thought himself he had: the knowledge he had of truth, and which was rather a show of seeming gifts and parts shall die, and vanish away, and he shall be left to fall into ignorance, error, and heresy." It is obvious, according to the Scriptures, that this person was never saved to begin with, even though they are sure they are saved according to their own beliefs. Will you believe your deceptive heart, or the Scriptures?
When you examine your life through the microscope of Scripture, what do you see? Has God made you a new creation in His Son Jesus Christ? How are the fruits that you are producing? Remember, you want to examine yourself by Scripture, not by other people, and surely not by your own opinion. If the bible says that the Lord has saved you, praise be unto the Lord you are saved, but if the bible says you are lost, praise be unto the Lord Who saves the lost. "But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," Romans 5:8. Christ saves you as you are. You cannot clean up and then come to Him, because you will never be able to achieve sinlessness. Trust Christ alone to save you. He took upon Himself the sins of all who have and will be saved. Dear lost person, will you be saved today? "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," John 6:37.
Don't lie to yourself, especially with eternity on the line. Are you saved according to the Scriptures? Run to Him who will have mercy on you. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins," Isaiah 43:25. Our God is so good to us.
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Soli Deo Gloria.
